Friday, January 17, 2014

Guest Post: Top 5 Film Adaptations

I have never featured a guest post on this blog, but there's a first for everything. And today, it's the first time I'm featuring a guest post. The author of this post is Kate Voss, whom you can follow on Twitter at this link. Kate has written a post on the Top 5 Film Adaptations within the crime genre. Although I would have approached such a post differently, I think this is a good post to get the conversation on film adaptations started. And, quite frankly, shouldn't the idea of a guest post be to give readers something a bit different to read than usual? So, without further ado from me, please welcome Kate to the blog.

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Sometimes the blood,
sweat and tears that goes into writing a well-written, well-received book is
depicted and reproduced beautifully into a feature film. Most often, however,
we lose the imagination, characterization and plot development of the original
written material. When it comes to mystery and crime novels, there is a rare
group of films that capture the eeriness and thrill of a well-written book, and
instead rely on the gore and shock-value, or sometimes just play out like a
never-ending script.

In celebration of those
film producers and directors who took a crime or mystery novel and actually got
it right, I have presented a list of the 5 best film adaptations of all
time.

Best Adaptations:

The Silence of the Lambs
(1991)

This film was based on
the 1988 novel by Thomas Harris which was the sequel to Harris’ 1981 novel, Red Dragon. Both books feature the infamous Dr. Hannibal
Lecter, a cannibalistic serial killer who at times prepares gourmet meals with
human flesh.

In the 1991 film
adaptation, Anthony Hopkins gives a chilling performance as Hannibal, while
Jodie Foster takes the role of Clarice Starling, a young F.B.I. trainee who
seeks his help to solve a case. The film helped redefine the meaning of a
thriller and serial killer and was able to capture the frantic tension that
Harris imagined in the novel. It won an Academy Award in all the top five
categories: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best
Writing, and is considered a horror masterpiece.

No Country for Old Men
(2007)

Based on the 2005 crime
novel by the American author, Cormac McCarthy (who also is responsible for All
the Pretty Horses and Blood Meridian), No Country for Old Men
tells the story of an illegal drug trade gone wrong near the US-Mexican border,
and a psychopathic hitman who seeks revenge. It is a hunter-becomes-the-hunted
story that dramatizes McCarthy’s eerie prose shockingly well. We see Javier
Bardem play a role wildly contradictory to his suave Eat, Pray, Love character.

The film won four
Academy Awards, including Best Picture, has become the biggest box-office hit
for the Coen brothers to date, and was the first Oscar-winning film to be edited using Final Cut Pro. The popular film is currently streaming
on DirecTV and Netflix.

The Girl with the Dragon
Tattoo(2011)

Based on the 2005 crime
novel by the Swedish author Stieg Larsson, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was the
first of the Millennium series trilogy. The story follows journalist
Mikael (played by Daniel Craig) and a computer hacker Lisbeth (Rooney Mara’s
breakout role) as they investigate the 40-year-old disappearance of a woman.

Although the 2011
adaptation of the novel was not the first, being beat to the punch by the 2009 Swedish rendition, it was a brilliant representation of Larsson's
work. The chemistry between Craig and Mara was bewitching. The film won an
Academy Award for Best Achievement in Film Editing.

The Big Sleep (1946)

This film is based on
the 1939 crime novel by Raymond Chandler and featured Detective Philip Marlowe.
In the 1946 original film adaptation (much better than the 1978 adaptation) Humphrey Bogart perfectly captures the essence
and complexity of the Detective Marlowe story. The film talks Chandler's
storytelling and makes a brilliant film about the process of a detective,
rather than what is solved.

The film was deemed
“culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the U.S. Library of
Congress and still remains one of Bogart’s greatest films.

The Maltese Falcon(1941)

Yet another film
starring Humphrey Bogart, The Maltese Falcon is based on the 1930
detective novel by Dashiell Hammett, originally published in the pulp magazine,
Black Mask. While the story has been retold countless times in the cinema and
the stale attempts at recreating the main character, Sam Spade, the 1941 adaptation was the most successful.
The character of Sam Spade is credited as being the structural figure for
future private detective genres, borrowing from his detachment and
observational skills.

The Maltese Falcon has
been named as one of the greatest films of all time by Roger Ebert and also
Entertainment Weekly.

So, while some film
adaptations may flop, destroying the original creative environment constructed
in the original book, there are a select few who made authors proud and tell
the story as it should be told. What are your favorite film adaptations?

Davis Grubb's exquisitely-written THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER was magnificently adapted for the screen and directed by Charles Laughton. Starring Robert Mitchum as a psychopathic preacher, it contains moments both emotional and visual that are unforgettable.

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